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Hello all, 

I have a Lionel B6 switcher from 1988, 6-18000. One day a few years ago, the sounds went out. I took the board out, inspected it and found no issues with any of the circuitry, even under a scope. With modern circuitry, things are so compact and sensitive that its earier to replace the board for a newer upgraded one. But with this board there is plenty of room for repairs on most components. And I apreciate the classic sounds. 

The board seems normal and the speaker does "chirp" when first powered up, so there is life in it. The "whooshing" noise is gone when at an idle. I do not get a whistle or bell. Does anyone know what could the issue be? Even if it was static that shorted out the board. I feel very confident that i can replace the components that are gone, as there is a lot of room on the board. 

Thanks, 

Allan

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sorry I just found this post here in Apr 2020 because I have a smoke generator problem with the same engine.  I had the same problem as you and there was a guy named Martin Derouin who fixed my problem for me.  The speaker chirped on startup but that was it.  Martin "lucky for me" lived about 3 miles from my house.  It turned out it was the glued sending unit that to roller sent the signal to above the axle of the wheels.  I'm glad he did it for me because it was a tedious job watching him dig out the old unit and glue in the new one.  By the way we live in South East Michigan.  I will assume that after 2 years you either got it fixed or just gave up on it.

I need to know how the cup in the smoke generator goes back in with the spring in the cup facing up or the spring in the cup facing down on the pumper lever, ANY IDEA???  I'm going to put that out there if I can't figure it out myself.  It appears in the picture that the cup is up and the spring is inside the cup.

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  • smoke unit assy.

Looks like I'm late to the party also.  These boards were Lionel's first attempt at digital sounds right after I demonstrated to them what I did for Right of Way.  In a conversation with Mike Ledyard (VP Engineering) so many years ago at York, he told me they had custom chips made, about 10,000 pieces of each one.  Not cheap.  So these are not off the shelf parts.

Lou N

Lou N posted:

Looks like I'm late to the party also.  These boards were Lionel's first attempt at digital sounds right after I demonstrated to them what I did for Right of Way.  In a conversation with Mike Ledyard (VP Engineering) so many years ago at York, he told me they had custom chips made, about 10,000 pieces of each one.  Not cheap.  So these are not off the shelf parts.

Lou N

and I assume these chips are no longer around and if they are they are buried somewhere deep in a warehouse.  sure would be nice to have an extra one laying around at home.  I really like that little engine.  I'm at the point I don't need anymore engines, I have 12 on tracks and more stored in cabinets under the layout.  The big newer one's won't run on my layout due to some of the curves being 027.  Years ago I converted some of the standard 027 switches by cutting out the curved section and using epoxy glued in 054 curves cut to suit.

Partial shot of 90% of the layout with lift out section in the air.

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  • 2. Layout Feb. 2019

I have this engine... somewhere.  The parts list and exploded diagram is in Supplement 15.

Have you checked the connections between the engine and tender?

Per the diagram the front tender truck is 8000-T80 Plain Truck with Hall Effect Sensor.  Not much detail on the diagram but there is a rotating magnet with a sensor wired to the circuit board.  Check to see if the sensor is in place and the wires are intact.

Looks like this:

18000 Sensor

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  • 18000 Sensor

I had this same problem and the wires were intact and the sensor was in the proper position.  Lucky for me there was a guy on the forum who lives about 3 miles from the house and he had extra sensors and dug the old one out and glued in the new one and now everything is perfect.  It was the sensor that was bad for me but do check out the wires and the mounting of the sensor as mentioned above.

Lary posted:

and I assume these chips are no longer around and if they are they are buried somewhere deep in a warehouse.  sure would be nice to have an extra one laying around at home.  I really like that little engine.  I'm at the point I don't need anymore engines, I have 12 on tracks and more stored in cabinets under the layout.  The big newer one's won't run on my layout due to some of the curves being 027.  Years ago I converted some of the standard 027 switches by cutting out the curved section and using epoxy glued in 054 curves cut to suit.

Partial shot of 90% of the layout with lift out section in the air.

Keep in mind that these chips were probably all made into product.  Lionel also made a sound boxcar which also consumed some boards.  This was in the early 90's so with all the moves Lionel made, I doubt there are any chips to find.

Really like your layout!

Lou N

If the wires to the hall sensor break and short on the frame the board may be damaged.  I did a mod to the hall sensor and the truck it is on to prevent possible damage to the board. The wires from the board to the hall sensor are WAY larger than they have to be and to compound the problem the small PC board the wires attach to is supported only by the leads coming out of the sensor.  When the truck pivots the wires tug on the board and flex the leads coming out of the sensor till they break.  First I substituted 32 gauge wire in place of 22~24 which Lionel used then I drilled a hole in the truck mounting lug and ran the smaller wires through the lug.  I have since added TMCC to this B6 and a railsounds 2.5 board in the tender as well as a pickup roller to the truck the hall sensor is on. While at it I installed a MTH fan smoke unit and 4 chuff smoke. The photo shows a LCRU2 board which I am in the process of replacing with an ERR AC Commander.  The old LCRU2 board stopped talking with the RS2.5 board.  I'll add a photo of the ERR board in the loco asap   See photos.      j

 

 

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NICE job.  that's a lot of upgrade work you did on that engine.  I do prefer to leave a lot of my old 50's 60's steam engines the way they are.  NO, I'm not a collector I buy to run them on the track but just kind of prefer them stock.  My entire layout is still using a transformer style system I have not upgraded to TMCC or any of the  newer modes of running trains.  I guess at 74 I'm stuck in my ways by using a MRC dual controller with a cabled hand held throttle.  I also use an older ALTROL cabled controller but it has momentum control for the AC trains.  I guess I really would love to switch over to the newer stuff but don't want the hassle of doing it.  I actually concentrate more on scenery and details on the layout as you can see by the picture.  This layout has been in existence for 40+ years and most of the scenery is done and now I concentrate on details and I did scratch build a lot of my buildings back in the days.  Again great job with the conversion on the B6 and I think I will check out my wires running to the circuit board and do your recommendation on it.  Still so much to do on the layout and as the body ages it gets a little harder getting in those cramped positions on the layout to work on it

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  • 2. Layout Feb. 2019: Started bench work sometime back in the mid 70's

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